Be Excellent To Each Other

bloody hell...

erk!

Malc

fuck sake

Malc

I may have had wine but it reads like we lost to Holland. Hopefully once I'm sober it won't say that.

Hahahaha. Will tape the highlights now. Come on pakistan!

After a couple of series of making the West Indians look like poor fielders, we've suddenly become a side where Monty Panesar could get a game as a specialist fielder. Nice work. Only four attempts at the stumps from a couple of yards away, lads.

I personally blame them dropping Dimi. He'd probably be in most world T20 teams, and despite ours being rubbish we drop him. Ummm, why? Also, why is Foster playing when prior is better than him at EVERYTHING.

Amusing.

If we beat Pakistan we still get through, but seriously terrible result.

FUCKKKKKKKKK. I thought I imagined this when I read it last night. Terrible.

My crippling hangover serves as a reminder that everything I thought happened last night, including the cricket, did.

Shit

At least you can have a relaxing day at home to recover.

Hold on.

The West Indies didn't want to be here, they came, collected a paycheque and are looking forward to leaving.

Panesar is better at nothing than none of those selected, let alone fielding. I agree Mascerenhas should have played instead of Key. England dropped catches they should have pouched no doubt, but the fact remains that they lost the game because they were not aggressive enough in the last 5 overs with the bat with wickets in the hutch. Broad hits the stumps at the end of the game and he's a fucking hero for winning the game, simple as.

If we were playing anyone other than Netherlands there's no way those last few overs would have been poked about for ones and twos. That's where the game was lost. The Dutch deserve credit for a decent batting display. England deserve derision, but derision for the things they did wrong please.

Edit: Prior. A great bat, and maybe plays as a bat in his own right in most cricket (you could certainly make this case in T20 too), but I'm sorry, Foster is streets ahead with the gloves, stood back or up as is his speciality. Foster's huge strength is up to the medium fast bowlers, but England didn't pick any. So who's fault is that? But he's still better than Prior with the gloves, and with Prior batting in the keeper's slot, his batting doesn't make a lot of difference in this game I'm afraid.

Yeah, they looked terrible against the Aussies!





I was joking about Panesar, obviously enough. I think they picked Key as a replacement for KP not being fit, but Macca would be probably my second or third name on the team sheet. I'd have had Swann playing too, as he's in great form.



I thought I was giving them derision for everything! I agree they lost momentum and messed up by not having someone who can score quick runs in the lower order, but players like the three I was upset at missing out can give that. Macca is our biggest hitter, I'd expect Prior to score runs at a better rate than Foster, and Swann is a tremendously useful batsman to come in around the lower middle order, and can be promoted if we need to get some boundaries (his ODI strike rate with the bat is, I think, the highest in the England set-up).



I agree Foster is normally better with the gloves, but he didn't have a great game, and if you're not picking the bowlers who play to his strengths then why pick him over the better batsman? I also think Foster has a potentially suspect temperament for the big occasion, but could be wrong on that. Time may tell on that one.

Overall I think we had the set-up of the team wrong a bit, and I don't think Colly is a natural captain, and he was picked as it purely because he's a regular and senior player. I'd prefer to see someone more likely to take charge of the game. I only saw highlights of the Holland game, but if Colly didn't walk up to Broad and impress upon him that he must under no circumstances take a wild fling at the stumps, or tell the fielders to get round to back up then he needs a slap.

Still, T20 is still a lottery. I was discussing it a bit with some guys over the weekend, and saying how it is much more like American sports such as Baseball and Basketball. In these kinds of games, very few teams get amazing records of winning every match, because a lot of it is down to form and luck, much more so than a Test series. So the team that wins the World Series or the NBA Finals will doubtless have played some poor games and had some beatings along the way. They just play soooo many games that it doesn't matter as things even out over the long period. Having a round robin affair with 2 games each really increases the chances of this happening. Alas, it's happened to us.

Well, they've brought Swann and Macca back in, so let's see how it works out for us. Sadly we're playing the best T20 team in the world, so chances are we'll lost.

Hope, however, springs eternal.

Much better!

All is forgiven, except Bopara, for dropping that catch a man with no arms could have caught!

So England will win it now then, right?

Of course. We're either the best or the worst team in the world. There's no middle ground!

Excellent performance in the field. I was worried about whether or not the score would be enough, but the bowling and the fielding (apart from you, Mister Bopara) was excellent.

I'd give Luke Wright the MotM award, as his all round contribution was top notch. A mid-30s score thwacked at a strike rate of above 200 cannot be underestimated, plus his bowling and fielding were excellent.

P.S. Rashid was bloody turning the ball too.

Excellent, they gave it to Luke. Nice one.

Lose to an associate member, then beat the best T20 in the world. Fucking crazy.

Yeah, but Pakistan didn't look anything like the side they used to be. They didn't look a patch on SA and dare I say it the WI.

Unless they thrash Netherlands they could go out. Amazing stuff.

Blimey. You'd think Pakistan would do a better job of hiding that they were told to throw the game, wouldn't you?

I'm not totally up on how net run-rate works. If Holland win the toss and bat second, can they just aim for about 45 runs below Pakistan's total and get through?

That was much, much better!

But then England struggled against Scotland and whipped the WI too... maybe it's a case of complancy against the "lesser" sides?

Malc

Yes, pretty much.

Heh. Come on, you little Dutchies!

Though it'd be more by about 20-odd than 40-odd.

Ah, of course. Obvious when you think about it. Pakistan really want to bat an awful lot better than they did last night.

Out of interest, if Holland sneak through do we get to avoid The Group Of Death with the Saffers and Aussies (or Windies) in the next round?

rule question.. are runs always take presendence over wickets, if i understand it correctly

1. normal test cricket runs until one team is all out?
2 One day is 50 overs
3. twenty20 is 20 overs?

but then i wonder what is the significans of taking wickets in twenty20 as the runs rule, and englands 162/5 was worse then 163/6? Notr many teams will go all out in just 20, are they?

20 below pakistan is enough, so we can lose, but by a bit. is it still possible for england to go out?

England are safe, as there is no situation that could arise where we are level or below two teams with better net run rate.

In other words:

If Holland win then the placings are obvious. They go top, England in second.

If Pakistan win, then it goes down to margin of victory. The Netherlands already have a worse net run rate than England, so by losing cannot overtake England. Pakistan can overtake England, but only if they win, by dint of which The Netherlands are out.

Regarding the importance of wickets, they don't factor in to the scoring, but if you lose some early on then it will change your attitude to the innings, as your best batsmen go at the start, and if you take risks when you know you don't have many decent hitters of the ball left, you could be all out early on and not set a hard target.

No, England are B2 no matter what.



Malc

That's utterly bonkers.

On my way to the 'Bridge as I type this. Here's hoping for a Sri Lanka win!

Quite, England'll have India, WI/Australia and SA in their group.

Malc

Bloody Hell, imagine your captain saying that, how on earth is that supposed to motivate you to play?

Malc

True, but he's right, and it's what pretty much everyone other than Chris Gayle is thinking.

I didn't think the Tigers had scored enough with 138, but Ireland are on for scoring about 50 here.

Niall O'Brien is a lazy cunt. Run for yourself, I don't care that you twisted your ankle wicket keeping!

He has, of course, starting biffing it all over the shop.

Haha, I just told some guy with an Australian flag draped over him that I really liked one quarter of it.

I think your initial reaction might be more correct...

Malc

Good result, not entirely unexpected though. Bangladesh were mentally weak in 2007, and they still are. Jeremy Bray's been a disappointment on his return to the national set-up, another 2 today.

Haha! Class. Some other things I heard the Barmy Army singing to Aussies (at Edgbaston as I remember): "God Save YOUR Queen" and "Get your shit stars, get your shit stars, get your shit stars off our flaaaaaag"

I can't wait for the summer to bait the Aussies again (some of the people I will bait most are members of my family!).

It's normally "God save our gracious Queen" and judicious use of the word 'our' throughout it, until the final line where every screams during the, "Long to reign over YOU!" part.

Sadly, the other favourite of (to the tune of 'She'll be comin' round the mountain) "You get three Aussie dollars to the pound", where each verse increases the number, has been discontinued due to the collapse in our national currency.

Of course, if the Aussies work here (rather than flying over for the match) then that's fucking great news for them.

Was that in the ICC in 2004? Late september game, cloudy as fuck, Jason Gillespie on the boundary in front of the Hollies stand for three balls until he went to Ponting asking to be moved away from the mean men singing about him...

Went the following year for the ODI there, tickets were three time the price, crowd were half as much fun.

The Aussies are making a proper mess of this. Heh.

There is some comedy gold in this game.

Ashes 2005. The best 2 (or so) hours of my life on that day the Aussies should have won the test but Fred and GBH went mental ending up with Kasper gloving it to Jones to end it after a Warne batting cameo.

I can remember a mate of mine getting Gillespie to ask Ponting to be moved in almost identical circumstances. I wonder if that was the game you are referring to!! Haha! He had gone right down to the fence to sledge him. That mate is one hell of a sledge when we're playing too, and with a load of Strongbow on board he's a handful.

I can remember one guy going down to the front. We'd been singing "we all live in a gypsy caravan" and this guy walked to the fence waving a big issue, asking for a refund.

Two sixes! Start the car.

Best Australian team ever.

Awww, shame the Aussies are out

This probably doesn't bode well for the Ashes though, three weeks for them to stew.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Best match ever!

Don't mercilessly milk something that happened four years ago, whatever you do.

Hmmm, it's better than milking something that happened 43 years ago, I reckon.

weseem to get an okay total if we are allowed to score -20 don't we?